The Serbs and Croats refuse to let anything but food and medicine in to the beleaguered Muslims. Pentagon planners have rejected using military force to clear the roadblocks. Instead, they are focusing on increasing the airlift operation into Sarajevo–and perhaps opening up the Tuzla airfield as a second supply point. They are also considering increasing the number of airdrops flown nightly out of Germany’s RheinMain air base.
The plans pose a number of problems for Clinton’s team. First is the question of who will provide the extra ground personnel to service a stepped-up airlift. Beyond that is the issue of whose military engineers will repair the battered Tuzla runway and who will defend the strip once it is operational.
Finally the U.S. Air Force will permit only cargo aircraft equipped with the anti-missile AN/AAR-47 air-defense system to be flown into Bosnia. Virtually all the C-130s and C-141s fitted with the system are in Air Force Reserve or National Guard units. Reserve and guard crews are already making the run into Sarajevo, and more would likely volunteer. But since the Somalia debacle, the White House has been reluctant to put more U.S. troops, especially civilian reservists, in harm’s way.
